You guys really need to get a competent commenting system: so far, your reliance on typepad plain sucks.
There are a number of good plugins which will allow you to have a serious commenting system, further your own academic goals, and not piss off most people trying to get something out of being here.
Just saying ...
I second that. If you're going to make a commenting rule system, get a real commenting system and moderator.
I agree with the above commenters. What we need is a decent forum! Why don't create one in google groups? This site is meant to be a blog, not a forum and TypePad sucks!
I've voiced my annoyance with the commenting system in the past, in particular that it is non-threaded and so often very difficult to figure out what someone is responding to if they don't include context (which they often don't), so I won't give details again.
On the topic of the 2 of 10 rule, if it's to prevent one person dominating a thread, shouldn't the rule be "no more than 2 of last 10 should be by the same person in the same thread" (so 3 posts by the same person would be fine as long as they are in 3 different threads)?
I must again confess that I don't understand the appeal of a separate forum: what's wrong with the thriving comment sections on each post? Isn't it best to have all the discussion consolidated in one place? (Also, contra Joseph, I prefer the current flat format over a threaded alternative.)
The only problems I have with the current setup are the pagination of 50+-comment threads, and the inability to directly link to comments not on the first page of a thread. (When I follow such a link, I just get sent to the first page.) One would imagine someone at TypePad should be working on the latter problem, which seems like a major bug. Or is it just my browser?--anyone else experience this?
I like the Disqus comment system. Threaded conversations are easier to follow and can be selectively ignored, while comment ratings tend to be a reliable measure of content quality. Also, comments left on different Disqus-powered blogs by the same user are consolidated on a unique page, and users ranked by their cumulative comment ratings. It is not clear whether the "2 of 10" rule would be needed if such a system were implemented, given the added functionality and incentives.
"""On the topic of the 2 of 10 rule, if it's to prevent one person dominating a thread, shouldn't the rule be "no more than 2 of last 10 should be by the same person in the same thread" (so 3 posts by the same person would be fine as long as they are in 3 different threads)?"""
I came here to say that. The means seem like overkill for the stated ends.
Three wishes for improvement (don't know how easily done on Typepad, if at all)
1) In addition to feeds available now, an RSS or Atom feed that includes all posts and all comments to them
2) disable comment pagination
3) ability to edit comments for a short while after publishing them
I second Davis: current commenting system fine except for pagination limit and link problems (using both Firefox and IE in my case).
Slightly OT for this thread: there should always be a prominent link on the right to the open thread. As things are, it gets heavy usage the first couple days of the month, then falls off the bottom of the page before anyone can read most of the comments. Look, it's gone again already!
I know I've said this before, but I think it was on the open thread and it fell off the bottom of the page before anyone read it.
Such a rule would disproportionally impact people who live in a different time zone than most other people on the site. (I know this post was first published on OB before threaded comments were implemented, but ISTR someone calling someone else out for making too many comments in a row as recently as 2012.)
A more reasonable rule could be “you shouldn't make more than n comments an hour” or similar.
There is no rule against commenting more than 3 times in a thread. Sorry if anyone has gotten this impression.
However, among the 10 "Recent Comments" visible in the sidebar at right, usually no more than 2, rarely 3, and never 4, should be yours. This is meant to ensure no one person dominates a thread; it gives others a chance to respond to others' responses. One-line comments that quickly correct an error may be common-sensically excepted from this rule.
You need not refrain from commenting, just wait a bit.